{"id":18570,"date":"1980-08-20T11:00:00","date_gmt":"1980-08-20T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=18570"},"modified":"2026-09-25T09:55:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:55:34","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1980\/08\/20\/roll-of-the-dice-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

No, not\u00a0that<\/em> “Protection.” We’ll discuss the song Bruce donated to Donna Summer at a later date and dice roll.<\/p>\n

Today’s “Protection” is a much earlier song by the same name that Bruce recorded at home in early 1979. This song has never seen the light of day in any finished form, although some of its DNA did surface in an official release years later. But I’m getting ahead of myself.<\/p>\n

In early 1979, fresh off the Darkness Tour, Bruce started tinkering with some new songs on his acoustic guitar from his home in Holmdel, New Jersey, recording them on cassette as he worked on them. Some of these songs would make it on his next album, like “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)”; others, like “Dollhouse,” would have to wait until Tracks\u00a0<\/em>or even later; and some were simply abandoned when Bruce lost interest or pursued a different musical direction.<\/p>\n

“Protection” is an interesting case, though: we know that Bruce was clearly committed to it for a while, because there are no less than six work-in-progress home demos of the song that have escaped into the wild.<\/p>\n

The earlier leaked outtakes feature Bruce’s typical pseudo-lyrical bluffing that readers of this blog are by now familiar with. Trying to make sense of them can be an unrewarding experience, as these outtakes are essentially working sessions as Bruce starts, stops, and tries out different phrasing, throwing in nonsense syllables for parts he hasn’t quite worked out yet.<\/p>\n